Foreign World.

 We are owed nothing, but we are freely gifted with the opportunity for life in a future world- perfect in the way we can only long for now as life rips us apart at every turn.

Is God with you in all you do? If not, He should be. When we exclude God from any part of our lives we are only part-time Christ followers, and Christ won't know you at all when He returns.

Good or bad, whatever you're doing let God be there with you. Yes, even as you do something you know is contrary to the will of God, don't exclude Him. Acknowledge your weak flesh, acknowledge it -not as a way to excuse doing wrong when you know right from wrong, but because truly we are incredibly weak in our flesh. Acknowledge God not as an act of defiance, but as knowing you are weak and in need of rescuing. Acknowledge God in all honesty, He knows all truth and our acknowledging the truth before Him isn't wearisome to Him. Acknowledge your creature status before your Creator. Ask for miracles, ask for help, ask for forgiveness over and over again, without ceasing. 

The torment we experience right now in so many ways is excruciating to us on emotional, mental, spiritual and physical level. We can, and do ask God to release us from the myriad of agonies, and see no relief in sight. God answers us from His word, our treasures should be in heaven, our hope is in Christ, the world of the future is our reward. Right now we are but pilgrims, aliens in a foreign world knowing the corruption which has caused all the horrors of this existence are not the world we belong to. We know this world is temporary, we know our lives here are temporary and we can't ever take our eyes off that prize- eternity.

God help us as we seek to follow His will- serving others as He served, working hard now as He worked hard, all through HIS love! HIS LOVE!

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Excerpt - E.J. Waggoner-

"I Am Debtor." 

That was the keynote of Paul's life, and it was the secret of his success. Nowadays we hear of men saying, "The world owes me a living." But Paul considered that he owed himself to the world. And yet he received nothing from the world but stripes and abuse. Even that which he had received before Christ found him was a total loss. But Christ had found him, and given himself to him, so that he could say, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal. 2:20.

As Christ's life was his life, and Christ gave himself for the world, Paul necessarily became a debtor to the whole world.

This has been the case of every man who has been a servant of the Lord. "David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep." Acts 13:36. 

"Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Personal Labor. 

There is a foolish notion prevalent that ordinary labor is degrading, especially to a minister of the gospel. It is not all the fault of the ministers themselves, but largely the fault of the foolish people about them. They think that a minister must always be faultlessly attired, and that he must never soil his hands with ordinary manual labor. Such ideas were never gained from the Bible. Christ himself was a carpenter, yet many professed followers of him would be shocked if they should see their minister sawing and planing boards, or digging in the ground, or carrying parcels.

There is a false dignity altogether too prevalent, which is utterly opposed to the spirit of the gospel. Paul was not ashamed nor afraid to labor. And this he did not merely occasionally, but day after day while he was engaged in preaching. 

See Acts 18:3, 4. He said, "These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me." 

Acts 20:34. He was speaking to the leaders of the church when he said, "I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." Vs. 35.